Transforming Education in the Digital Age
Annotated References*
Barber, M. & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s-best performing schools come out on top. Washington, DC: McKinsey & Co. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/SSO/Worlds_School_Systems_Final.
pdf
Changing what happens in the hearts and minds of millions of children —the main charge of any school system —is no simple task. That some do so successfully while others do not is indisputable. So why is it that some school systems consistently perform and improve faster than others? To find out why some schools succeed where others do not, McKinsey studied 25 of the world's school systems, including 10 of the top performers. The experience of these top school systems suggest that three things matter most: getting the right people to become teachers; developing them into effective instructors; and ensuring the system is available to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.
Bassett, P. F. (2005). Reengineering schools for the 21st century: There is already general agreement among various sectors of our society regarding the skills that today's students will need as they move on to higher education and careers.
Phi
Delta Kappan, 87 (1), 76.
There is a growing consensus among members of the corporate community, university professors, and informed educators regarding the skills needed for success in college and in the marketplace. According to the Business-Higher
Education Forum, "today's high-performance job market requires graduates to be proficient in such cross-functional skills and attributes as leadership, teamwork, problem solving, and communication," as well as time management, selfmanagement, adaptability, analytical thinking, and global consciousness. A study by 20 of America's most prestigious research universities identified these same proficiencies and skills as the ones students need not only to gain admission to college but to succeed there. While the study proposes standards for the various academic disciplines, its introduction indicates the "proficiencies" these standards are meant to develop. Likewise, at the precollege level, educators have articulated locally and nationally a core body of knowledge--what they know students should know. Regardless of the angle of vision, there are remarkable similarities in what experts see. In short, educators do not lack clarity about what to teach; rather, they are mired in antiquated thinking about how to teach. More specifically, they need to understand what exercises and experiences best produce proficiency in the skills and attributes that all sides agree are critical.
Moreover, legislative mandates (e.g., high-stakes testing) and a slavish allegiance to traditional teaching practices and to specific disciplines of study are diversions that prevent educators from devoting serious attention to developing a more global mindset and helping children acquire the knowledge and skill sets they will need to succeed.
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Benavente, A., & Panchaud, C. (2008). Good practices for transforming education.
Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 38 (2), 161-170.
This text is a guide to the reading and interpretation of the "good practices" that are developing in the countries participating in this project and elsewhere. A systematic approach to the factors making up a "good practice" has enabled us to share our analyses in a more structured manner and to reflect on their potential for learning and change, their peculiarities and regular features, as well as their sustainability outside certain particular contexts and specific forms of support. What can we learn from these "good practices?" Can they influence educational policies on both the administrative and pedagogical levels? Can they become strong points in strategies aimed at improving school life and pupils' results? Under what conditions? These are some of the questions that guide this text on "good practices." The analysis of the answers to these questions has enabled us to identify a number of minimal conditions that are necessary for a good practice to have some effect on education policies. Moreover, it opened up new lines of questioning which can be pursued.
Boshier, R., & Huang, Y. (2006). Building for the future by expatiating the past: High drama from the summit of china's learning mountain.
International Journal of
Lifelong Education, 25 (4), 351-367.
As part of a large-scale learning initiative, the Chinese Communist Party has declared Lushan to be a "learning mountain". There have been people learning at Lushan Mountain for 2000 years. In 1959 there was a Central Committee meeting at Lushan, where Mao Zedong purged his widely respected comrade
Peng Dehuai for daring to say people were starving because of the Great Leap
Forward. Everyone knew Peng spoke the truth but few dared antagonize the Chairman. Today the 1959 purge of Peng is seen as the end of comrades and consensus and beginning of dictatorship.
There were other tumultuous meetings there in 1961 and 1970. Hence, reconstructing Lushan as a learning mountain is an attempt to expatiate the past and build a more humane future. In addition, putting learning at the top of the mountain brings tourists! The authors analyze the Chinese learning initiative and describe the political significance of Lushan. Theoretically, the learning mountain is shaped by Jiang Zemin's "three represents", first-generation (Faure report) lifelong education and, most surprisingly, humanist/interpretivism. At Lushan, the
21st century might best be assured by learning from the first century. Zhu Xi was wise and, 2000 years ago, not enthused by learning in schools. Now as then, why go to school when you can learn on a mountain?
Brock, W., Marshall, R., & Tucker, M. (2009, May 30). 10 steps to world class schools.
The Washington Post . Retrieved July 2, 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052903012_pf.html
The key to U.S. global stature after World War II was the world's best-educated workforce. But now the United States ranks No. 12, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and today's younger generation is the first to be less educated than the preceding one. No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) is about getting our lowest-performing students to minimum
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standards. That is nowhere near enough. To get us where we need to go, we propose the National World Class Schools Act to replace NCLB. This article outlines what states need to do to get its fair share of federal education funds.
Carneiro, R., & Draxler, A. (2008). Education for the 21st century: Lessons and challenges.
European Journal of Education, 43 (2), 149-160.
On the basis of proposals contained in the 1996 report "Learning: the Treasure
Within" by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century
(established by UNESCO), the authors examine the influence and pertinence of its construct of education on the four pillars learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together 12 years later. Focusing on learning to live together, the article reviews the background against which the Delors Report was published, synthesizes the concepts and practices of learning to live together, and proposes some ways forward.
Christen, A. (2009). Transforming the classroom for collaborative learning in the 21st century.
Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers, 84 (1), 28-31.
Today's hyper-connected students live in a world of instant interpersonal communications and virtually infinite access to information and educational resources. But this networked world, and the powerful learning tools it offers, has yet to penetrate the typical classroom. In many ways educational institutions are spinning their curricular wheels, falling behind the evolving needs of students, communities and future employers. In general, schools are not taking full advantage of 21st century learning technologies, and they are failing to reach out to the public- and private-sector organizations that can provide them with support and fresh approaches. In this article, the author advocates for an educational transformation that aligns the "how" and "what" of learning with the learners themselves and the world of work that awaits them after they eave school. That means: (1) Instruction must be synchronized more closely with the ways students live and interact outside the classroom; (2)
Curricula must address the soft skills required in today's global, informationdriven workforce; (3) Technology and pedagogy must be better integrated; and
(4) Educational institutions must look for partners that can add to their pedagogical strengths and help shore up their weaknesses. Networking in all its forms is key to bringing about such a transformation. The author describes the Cisco Networking Academy, an educational program that has partnered with a broad range of organizations worldwide to create an e-learning environment aimed specifically at 21st century students and their instructional needs.
Cookson, P. W., Jr. (2009). What would socrates say?
Educational Leadership, 67 (1), 8-
14.
Correctly harnessed, we can blend the best of our traditional intellectual linear culture--Socrates' wisdom of the 5th century BCE--with the current digital visual culture, creating a new learning and intellectual environment consistent with the cognitive and expressive demands of the 21st century. Four elements of the
21st-century mind could be the basis of a new approach to education: critical reflection, empirical reasoning, collective intelligence, and metacognition.
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Learning in the 21st century will likely take place in a new electronic learning environment that replaces the linear, text-bound culture of conventional schools.
Such an environment, called "The LearningSphere" by the author, would be characterized by its focus on universally accessible knowledge, Socratic dialogue, essential questions, experiential learning, and cooperative problem solving.
Cuban, L. (1993). Computers meet classroom: Classroom wins.
Teachers College
Record, 95 (2), 185-210.
Examines why computers are used less often in classrooms than in other organizations; suggests that technological innovations have never been central to national school improvement movements, and that the dominant cultural belief about teaching, learning, and proper knowledge and about the way schools are organized for instruction inhibits computer use.
Daniel, J., Kanwar, A., & Uvalic-Trumbic, S. (2006). A tectonic shift in global higher education.
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 38 (4), 16-23.
Europeans lament that their universities are lagging behind those in the United
States, while Americans worry that their academic leadership is threatened by complacency. Both groups, however, are missing the tectonic shift that will transform the map of higher education worldwide--the growth of universities in the developing world. Spreading connectivity, allied with the massive creation of educational resources based on open-source technology, may soon allow the radical reduction in costs necessary for higher education to serve the four billion people at the bottom of the world's economic pyramid. Enrollment growth is accelerating as more governments see the rapid expansion of higher education as a key element in their transition from developing to developed countries. This article discusses how this trend may effectively define the global profile of higher education in the 21st century. The authors predict that, seeing a massive market opening, for-profit institutions in the developed world will expand their cross-border provision of educational services, especially distance and elearning. Establishing quality assurance mechanisms for such rapid expansion will be a major challenge for governments.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How Americas commitment to equity will determine our future . New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
The Flat World and Education offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning
America's future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.
Deem, R. (2008). Producing and Re/Producing the global university in the 21st century:
Researcher perspectives and policy consequences.
Higher Education Policy, 21 (4),
439-456.
This paper examines some aspects of current debates about what constitutes the global university in the 21st century, focusing particularly on concepts and perspectives about how the idea of a university is being produced and
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reproduced. As well as exploring the theoretical and empirical content of eight different analyses ranging from the relationship between the university and the welfare state to the effects of the financialization of academic publishing, this paper considers the relevance of the arguments presented to universities themselves and the extent to which the contributions analyzed might also appeal to policy makers and university leaders. The eight analyses selected are among those presented at two recent international seminar series on universities, ideas, and globalization processes for which the author was a co-organizer.
Diaz, V., Garrett, P. B., Kinley, E. R., Moore, J. F., Schwartz, C. M., & Kohrman, P.
(2009). Faculty development for the 21st century.
EDUCAUSE Review, 44 (3), 46-
55. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0933.pdf
.
In the 21st century, colleges and universities need to consider faculty development programs in the same way that they view academic programs for their Net Gen and Millennial students. In other words, successful faculty development programs should include mentoring, delivery in a variety of oncampus and off-campus formats (face-to-face, blended, online, self-initiated/selfpaced), and anyplace/anytime programming to accommodate just-in-time needs.
Faculty members are learners with needs and constraints similar to those of students. Support programs must be valuable, relevant current, and engaging.
They should also demonstrate best practices in providing a participatory, facilitated learning environment. In addition, faculty development programs should address the multiple roles and needs of the faculty member as facilitator, teacher advisor, mentor, and researcher. Institutions should also consider that offering a dynamic faculty development program will serve not only full-time, but also part-time faculty--relied on heavily by some institutions. Finally, faculty development can occur outside official programs: internal opportunities can include serving on and/or leading committees, writing and administering grants, and designing and facilitating official faculty development programs; external development opportunities can include attending conferences, furthering academic studies, conducting research projects, and collaborating with colleagues from other institutions. Implementing and sustaining successful faculty development initiatives continues to be both an opportunity and a challenge, especially with the anticipated severe budget cuts that many institutions are facing. The EDUCAUSE community recently identified
"encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT" as one of the top-five teaching and learning challenges of 2009. Thus it is critical that institutions continue to seek systemic ways to support teaching and learning innovation and to connect to successful programs. A critical component of an innovative teaching and learning environment continues to be sustainability: the process of faculty development must begin before students enter the academic profession and must continue at all subsequent levels of the 21st-century faculty member's career. In this article, the authors present a five-year plan for faculty support and development and offer some recommendations for supporting and leveraging the talents of faculty members. (Contains 3 notes.)
Friedman, T. (2008). Tom Friedman on education in the "flat world". School
Administrator, 65 (2), 12-19.
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In his best-selling book, "The World Is Flat," Thomas Friedman describes that the real world is becoming "flat." He describes how 10 forces are "flattening" the 21st century--making it easier for people in India, China and around the world to compete with Americans and others who had triumphed the century before. This article presents an interview with Friedman by author Daniel Pink. During the interview, the two authors discussed topics such as the additions in
Friedman's book, "mashed-up" method of teaching, and the implications on educational reforms of having a new president in November.
Furlong, J. (2008). Making teaching a 21st century profession: Tony Blair's big prize.
Oxford Review of Education, 34 (6), 727-739.
From his very earliest days in office, Tony Blair believed that if he was to achieve his broader educational reforms then the teaching profession itself needed modernizing--it had to become a "21st century profession." This paper charts the background to this aspiration and the complex range of interrelated policies used to achieve that reform. They included: a changed role for initial teacher education; a differentiated workforce; strategies to "focus" professionalism
(appraisal, standards and CPD); and a redefinition of professional knowledge.
Through these policies, the Government hoped to harness teacher professionalism to their broader reform agenda. The paper concludes with a discussion of Tony Blair's legacy in this field both in England and internationally.
Fletcher, G. H. (2006). Using technology to maintain competitiveness: How to get our groove back.
T.H.E.Journal, 33 (12), 18-21.
As China and India threaten the supremacy of the U.S. economy, the nation's best hope for keeping pace is putting educational technology funding to use to galvanize education. A report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
"Results that Matter," provides a compelling list of statistics from a variety of sources displaying U.S. students' lack of readiness for college and work. Starkly put, high school graduates are not prepared to be successful in the workforce; both the graduates and their employers tell us that. The American Diploma
Project found that nearly 40 percent of high school graduates feel underprepared for college or work, while in a 2005 survey from the National Association of
Manufacturers 84 percent of employers said that K-12 schools are doing a poor job of readying students for the workplace. Clearly, educators need to make school more engaging for students, in order to keep them enrolled and to turn out more professional scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists.
Virtually all the recommended solutions have advocated constructing a national approach to education that secures the United States from losing its competitive advantage. It may be that an effort of this size requires federal support; however, states, which ultimately have the responsibility for educating all students, are searching for ways to motivate students and help them remain and thrive in school. This article discusses the use of technology to maintain U.S. competitiveness in education and to equip students for the challenges of the global economy. For this millennial generation that uses multiple technologies, often concurrently, in their personal lives, using technology as an integral component of teaching and learning is the surest way to success. This may be merely a small step toward keeping the U.S. economy competitive over the next few decades, but
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multiplied by hundreds of similar steps taken across the country, the results become a major and hopefully enduring leap.
Hargreaves, A. & Shirley, D. (2009). The fourth way: The inspiring future for educational change . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
This book analyzes three previous major change efforts, outlines their strengths and limitations, and offers a successful and sustainable fourth way to integrate teacher professionalism, community engagement, government policy, and accountability.
Hoog, J., Bredeson, P. V., & Johansson, O. (2006). Conformity to new global imperatives and demands: The case of Swedish school principals.
European
Educational Research Journal, 5 (3-4), 263-275.
Over the past three decades, the forces of globalization--economic, political and cultural--have significantly affected institutions and people across the world: altering in some ways the very terrain of public and private life. Public education has in no small way been challenged by new realities and new demands in an increasingly interdependent yet competitive world environment. School principals are uniquely positioned as formal leaders of diverse and complex educational systems to mediate the often times opposing forces of globalization and localism with their communities. This article examines school leaders' understanding of their work and their work role priorities, especially with regard to teaching and learning, within a policy environment characterized by increasingly convergent policy and leadership discourse. Two major questions are addressed, theoretically and empirically: in what ways do school principals in Sweden, which has strong democratic traditions, address the tension between localism and national interests and the press for conformity to new global imperatives and demands; and to what degree, if any, has globalization created a new hegemony in school leadership? It is concluded that school principals in Sweden respond to questions about their schools without any reference to new global imperatives and demands. Their attention was generally related to national demands. Also, we see no clear evidence that globalization has created a new hegemony in school leadership in Sweden.
Joyce, P. (2008). Learning the real-world skills of the 21st century.
Techniques:
Connecting Education and Careers, 83 (4), 25-27.
This article describes a summer internship program at South Houston High
School which utilizes an innovative curriculum to teach students 21st century skills alongside core academics. Using the Transitions career education curriculum--a comprehensive curriculum created by ASCL Educational Services to fulfill Chicago Public Schools' need for soft skills development--students learned the necessary soft skills to be successful in a career, and reinforced them in a simulated workplace which provided authentic and relevant learning.
The program encompassed about 96 hours of job-skill training and construction activity. Students were selected through a hiring process, which included a basic application, group interview, attendance and discipline records, as well as letters
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of recommendation. Construction experience was not a prerequisite for acceptance; in fact, among the 14 girls and 11 boys in the program only one, the shop assistant, had any prior experience. A $600 stipend was provided to all students who completed the four-week program. Students worked six hours a day, four days a week. This authentic applied learning experience allowed students to incorporate academics in a real-world workplace scenario.
Landorf, H., Rocco, T. S., & Nevin, A. (2007). Creating permeable boundaries: Teaching and learning for social justice in a global society.
Teacher Education Quarterly,
34 (1), 41-56.
In their call for proposals for this themed issue, the editors maintain that higher education institutions should graduate future P-12 teachers who think globally, have international experience, demonstrate foreign language competence, and are able to incorporate a global dimension into their teaching. In contrast, the authors argue that future educators should be inclusive educators who use teaching strategies that are inclusive of all students, think globally, and include global dimensions in their teaching. Inclusive educators honor the diverse cultural, linguistic, physical, mental, and cognitive complexities of their students. They argue that a focus on teaching for social justice is where global education, special education, and disability studies converge. They assert that this begins with teaching respect for those who are different within one's own environment--tolerance from the inside out, and they believe that it is only when convergence among global education, special education, and disability studies is forged that true respect may emerge.
Students must experience tolerance in their own lives in order to teach respect.
To do this, teachers must both model tolerance and respect and give students real opportunities to be in what Schon (1990) calls the "murky swamp" of decision making in which they examine their own beliefs and choose respect as the best action. In this paper, they examine the questions: who are the teachers and students? What are their images of diversity? Then they describe the convergence of global education, inclusive education, and disability studies. Next they explore what it means to teach for social justice. From this stance, they describe several teaching strategies that teacher educators can use for creating permeable boundaries.
Lewis, T. (2007). Social inequality in education: A constraint on an American high-skills future.
Curriculum Inquiry, 37 (4), 329-349.
Countries everywhere are turning to education in the quest for competitive edge in the global economy. How to attain the high skills needed in new reformed workplaces is a preoccupation that can be observed across developed countries.
In this widening discourse of high skills and competitiveness, the U.S. skills production model is being seen as undesirable because it is perceived to be premised upon educational inequality and skills polarization. This article agrees with such characterization of the U.S educational condition. It examines skill tendencies in new reformed workplaces and conceptions of how schools must respond, then interrogates assumptions underpinning college-bound-noncollege-bound formulations that would have low socioeconomic status (SES) children pursuing watered-down academic fare, or vocational education , while high SES children are set on college pathways. The author contends that
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curricula approaches that are premised on alternative post-school destinations leave the children of poverty in the same unfavorable position as their parents, such curricula serving only to reproduce inequality. The article rejects curriculum tracking, and the notion of the non-college bound, and instead argues for the democratization of high status knowledge as the best response to the challenge of a highskills future.
Maclean, R., & Ordonez, V. (2007). Work, skills development for employability and education for sustainable development.
Educational Research for Policy and
Practice, 6 (2), 123-140.
This article focuses on the radical changes taking place in skills development for work and life, and their implications for the content of education and schooling. It examines skills development for employability and workforce education , with particular reference to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In turn, it is argued that the impact of these issues upon the world of work will be reflected in those education reform initiatives that will become necessary to keep pace with such institutionalized change.
Mulcahy, D. G. (2009). What should it mean to have a liberal education in the 21st century?
Curriculum Inquiry, 39 (3), 465-486.
Liberal education has long been a fascination for scholars and educators. At one time largely the concern of colleges and universities, over the years it has become central to the discussion of general education in both schools and colleges. Yet it has not been without its critics even from within. In asking what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century, and what contribution a liberal education can make in addressing this question, Carl Bereiter got to the heart of an increasingly urgent debate. It is essentially around Bereiter's question that this article is constructed. It draws on some of the classic literature in the field as well as more recent scholarship that raises issues concerning the historical idea of a liberal education and points to new directions for the future. In particular, it addresses the need to reconsider the ideal of the educated person as a starting point for justifying curriculum content in liberal education, it examines the claims of practical knowledge to be included in the curriculum, and it considers the case for greater attention to pedagogical considerations. It concludes that the literature strongly suggests that the time to forge new a conception of the time honored idea is at hand.
Murnane, R. J., & Steele, J. L. (2007). What is the problem? the challenge of providing effective teachers for all children.
Future of Children, 17 (1), 15-43.
Richard Murnane and Jennifer Steele argue that if schools are to equip young people with the skills essential in the new economy, high-quality teachers are more important than ever. In recent years, the demand for effective teachers has increased as enrollments have risen, class sizes have fallen, and a large share of the teacher workforce has begun to retire. Women and minorities have more career options than ever before, making it increasingly difficult to attract and retain the many effective teachers who are needed. Moreover, schools are limited in their ability to identify and reward the most effective teachers. Perhaps the most urgent problem facing education, say Murnane and Steele, is the unequal
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distribution of high-quality teachers. Poor children and minorities are disproportionately assigned to teachers with the least preparation and the weakest academic backgrounds. Teacher turnover is high in schools that serve large shares of poor students because the work is difficult, and the teachers who undertake it are often the least equipped to succeed. Murnane and Steele point out that in response to these challenges, policymakers have proposed a variety of policy instruments to increase the supply of effective teachers and distribute those teachers more equitably across schools. Such proposals include across-theboard pay increases, more flexible pay structures such as pay-for-performance, and reduced restrictions on who is allowed to teach. Several of these proposals are already being implemented, but their effectiveness remains largely unknown.
To measure how well these policies attract effective teachers to the profession and to the schools that need them most, rigorous evaluations are essential.
Murnane and Steele also note that policymakers may benefit from looking beyond borders to understand how teacher labor markets work in other countries.
Although policies rooted in one nation's culture cannot be easily and quickly transplanted into another, it is important to understand what challenges other countries face, what policies they are using, and how well those policies are working to enhance teacher quality and improve student achievement.
National Center on Education and the Economy. (2007). Tough Choices or Tough
Times: The report of the new commission on the skills of the American workforce.
Washington, DC: National Center on Education and the Economy.
This comprehensive report makes it very clear that the system of education in this country is broken. Even the most dedicated educators face huge obstacles.
Followi ng are some of the commission’s recommendations for transforming education:
 Invest in early-childhood education.
 Recruit better students to be teachers.
 Support life-long learning.
 End high school sooner for most students.
 Put high schools under performance contracts.
Nagel, P. (2008). Geography: The "essential" skill for the 21st century.
Social Education,
72 (7), 354-358.
As people head further into the 21st Century, they are living in a constantly changing and interdependent world. As such, students need a global awareness that includes familiarity with different cultures, beliefs, and lifestyles in order to understand and address global issues. Geography can help students understand these issues. In this article, the author identifies the three essential learning and innovative skills that can help students confront the challenges of tomorrow. He also discusses how thinking geographically can help students, teachers, and leaders for the next century and beyond.
New essential skills.(2005). Technology & Learning, 26 (4), 11.
Today, students typically begin their information experiences in front of a global electronic library of billions of pages of information (the Internet), where materials
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can be published by just about anyone, on just about anything, and for just about any reason. If students have been taught only to read and understand this information, they could be in serious trouble, possibly even in danger. Accessing information in an increasingly digital and networked world requires a range of skills of which decoding text is only a small part. This article offers essential skills crucial for students in the Digital Age.
Partnership For 21st Century Skills. (2007). 21 st Century Curriculum and Instruction.
Tucson, AZ: Partnership For 21st Century Skills. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_curriculum_and_ins truction.pdf.
The relationship between curriculum and instruction is obviously a very close one. Curriculum is essentially a design, or roadmap for learning, and as such focuses on knowledge and skills that are judged important to learn. Instruction is the means by which that learning will be achieved. To meet the needs of the 21st century learner and achieve the student outcomes described in its Framework, the Partnership calls on schools to adopt a 21st century curriculum that blends thinking and innovation skills; information, media, and ICT literacy; and life and career skills in context of core academic subjects and across interdisciplinary themes, and to employ methods of 21st century instruction that integrate innovative and research-proven teaching strategies, modern learning technologies, and real world resources and contexts.
Queensland Department of Education. (2001). New basics – the why, what, how and when of rich tasks . Brisbane, Queenland, Australia: The State of Queensland.
Retrieved from: http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/pdfs/richtasksbklet.pdf
Rich Tasks are the outward and visible sign of student engagement with the New
Basics curriculum framework. They are the assessable and reportable outcomes of a three-year curriculum plan that prepares students for the challenges of life in
'new times'. The Rich Task is a reconceptualization of the notion of outcome as demonstration or display of mastery; that is, students display their understandings, knowledge and skills through performance on transdisciplinary activities that have an obvious connection to the wide world. The Rich Task is but one component of the New Basics Framework. A set of Rich Tasks, in conjunction with the New Basics categories as curriculum organisers and with
Productive Pedagogies, is Education Queensland's attempt to empower and encourage teachers, unclutter the curriculum, up the ante intellectually, deliver fewer alienated students, prepare students for a future in an uncertain world, and position the classroom within the global village. Reporting on Rich Task outcomes within the New Basics Framework is to provide the most elaborate portrait of student achievement over nine years of schooling ever attempted in
Australia.
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Rotherham, A. J., & Willingham, D. (2009). 21st century skills: The challenges ahead.
Educational Leadership, 67 (1), 16-21.
The skills that students need for the 21st century are not really new, assert
Rotherham and Willingham. Critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and global awareness have been important to human progress throughout history, at least among the elites in different societies. What is new is the extent to which individual and collective success now depends on all students having such skills. Twenty-first century skills advocates, say the authors, often underestimate the magnitude of the challenge of teaching these skills in the context of meaningful content. For the 21st century skills movement to improve
Sawchuk, S. (2009). Backers of "21st-century skills" take flak.
Education Week, 28 (23),
1. schools, major changes will be necessary in curriculum, teacher training, and assessment.
The phrase "21st-century skills" is everywhere in education policy discussions these days, from faculty lounges to the highest echelons of the U.S. education system. Broadly speaking, it refers to a push for schools to teach critical-thinking, analytical, and technology skills, in addition to the "soft skills" of creativity, collaboration, and communication that some experts argue will be in high demand as the world increasingly shifts to a global, entrepreneurial, and service-based workplace. This article reports that a group of researchers, historians, and policymakers from across the political spectrum are raising a red flag about the agenda as embodied by the Tucson, Arizona-based Partnership for 21st Century
Skills, or P21, the leading advocacy group for 21st-century skills. According to them, unless states that sign on to the movement ensure that all students are also taught a body of explicit, well-sequenced content, a focus on skills will not help students develop higher-order critical-thinking abilities.
Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of classroom assessment in teaching and learning. CSE technical report No. CSE-TR-517). Retrieved from http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/Reports/TECH517.pdf
This paper develops a framework for understanding a reformed view of assessment, in which assessment plays an integral role in teaching and learning.
The proposed model is consistent with current assessment reforms being advanced across many disciplines. Three background sections of the report describe: (1) curriculum and psychological theories that have shaped methods of instruction, conceptions of subject matter, and testing methods in the past; (2) a conceptual framework based on new theories and new relationships among curriculum, learning theory, and assessment; and (3) connections between classroom uses of assessment and external accountability systems. The fourth and fifth sections elaborate the model for classroom assessment based on social-constructivist principles, arguing for the substantive reform of assessment and its use in classrooms to support learning. The final section outlines the kinds of research studies that will be needed to help realize a reformed vision of classroom assessment.
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Silva, E. (2008). Measuring skills for the 21st century. education sector reports.
Washington, DC: Education Sector. Retrieved July 13 from http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=716323
Leaders in government, business, and higher education are calling for today's students to show a mastery of broader and more sophisticated skills like evaluating and analyzing information and thinking creatively about how to solve real-world problems. Standing in the way of incorporating such skills into teaching and learning are widespread concerns about measurement. In this report, Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva examines new models of assessment that illustrate that the skills that really matter for the 21st century can be measured accurately and in a common and comparable way. New assessments such as the College Work and Readiness Assessment (CWRA), used at St.
Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, illustrate that the ability to think creatively and to evaluate and analyze information can be measured accurately and in a common and comparable way. The CWRA and other emergent models demonstrate the potential to measure complex thinking skills at the same time as a student's mastery of core content or basic skills and knowledge. There is, advocates the author, no need for more tests to measure advanced skills.
Rather, there is a need for better tests that measure more of the skills students' need to succeed today.
Sontag, M. (2009). A learning theory for 21st-century students.
Innovate: Journal of
Online Education, 5 (4) Retrieved from http://www.uh.cu/static/documents/STA/A%20Learning%20Theory%20for%2021st-
C%20Students.pdf
.
The affordances of today's digital technologies have significantly changed the way students learn. Arguing that current learning theories have failed to address this new reality, Marie Sontag proposes a new theory, social-connectedness and cognitive-connectedness schemata (SCCS) theory, that integrates key elements of other theories with gaming elements in a structure designed to facilitate engagement of students' social- and cognitive-connectedness schemata. The results of a pilot study using an instructional design model based on SCCS theory showed that students learning in an environment shaped according to these principles developed higher levels of expertise and greater learning transfer. (Contains 7 exhibits and 2 figures.)
Stewart, V. (2005). A world transformed: How other countries are preparing students for the interconnected world of the 21st century.
Phi Delta Kappan, 87 (3), 229-232.
Whether by incorporating the study of other nations and cultures into the school curriculum, requiring students to learn foreign languages, or encouraging crosscultural exchanges, countries around the world are preparing their students for life in the global era. Vivien Stewart describes efforts in Europe, Australia, and
Asia and assesses how the U.S. is doing in comparison.
Tuttle, H. G. (2007). Digital-age assessment: E-portfolios are the wave of the future.
Technology & Learning, 27 (7), 22.
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Effective 21st century assessment reaches beyond traditional testing to look at the broader accomplishments of learners. Assembling an e-portfolio, or electronic portfolio, is an excellent method for assessing students' progress toward school, state, or national academic standards, as well as 21st century skills. An electronic portfolio is a purposefully limited collection of student selected work over time that documents progress toward meeting the standards. Work may be collected over a semester, a year, or even several years, passing from one grade level and teacher to the next. E-portfolios reflect more in-depth, more comprehensive, and better thought out evidence of student learning than on-demand tests. In this article, the author offers ten tips on creating an e-portfolio and presents a clear e-portfolio template for students to easily organize their artifacts and reflections.
Wehling, B., (Ed.). (2007). Building a 21st century U.S. education system . Washington,
DC: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. Retrieved from http://www.nctaf.org/resources/research_and_reports/nctaf_research_reports/docu ments/Bldg21stCenturyUSEducationSystem_final.pdf.
This book is intended to serve as a stimulus for discussion of what is needed to provide all American children with a world-class education opportunity and to make education a top priority in every state and the country as a whole. A range of contributors offer a diverse number of possible solutions to the current educational crisis in American public education, presenting views of current and former Pre-K through 12 practitioners such as teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members; current and former policymakers in local, state, and national arenas; directors and chairs of educational organizations and leaders in educational advocacy; current and former leaders of nationally and internationally known businesses; and representatives from institutions of higher education such as researchers, academics, deans, professors, department heads, and executive officers. Nineteen chapters are included in five areas.
Yelland, N. (2006). Changing worlds and new curricula in the knowledge era.
Educational Media International, 43 (2), 121-131.
This paper considers some of the new directions for curriculum that have been promoted to ensure that contemporary school experiences are relevant to the lives of the young people who attend them. It also provides two examples and a discussion of activities that have been created in the context of such new conceptualizations. In addition, the article highlights the ways in which these activities provide opportunities for students to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to participate effectively in life in the 21st century.
Young, J., Birtolo, P., & McElman, R. (2009). Virtual success: Transforming education through online learning.
Learning & Leading with Technology, 36 (5), 12-17.
Retrieved from http://floridavirtualschool.net/general/press/headlines/2009/Leading%20&%20Learni ng%20March%2009.pdf
.
Online learning is creating new opportunities for thousands of students across
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the globe. Educators who embrace these reforms see this trend as a way to strengthen schools and meet students' individual needs. In this article, the authors describe how educators at Florida Virtual School embrace this learning environment to provide students with a high-quality, technology-rich educational experience to gain the knowledge and skills for success in the 21st century.
(Contains 4 resources.)
*Note: Abstracts from Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC).
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